Capello expects confidence boost

23 June 2010 10:47

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Fabio Capello was confident England's win over Slovenia will give them plenty of confidence as they head into the knockout stages of the World Cup. Jermain Defoe's first-half goal was enough to give the Three Lions a 1-0 win over Slovenia and reach the second round of the tournament - even though they will face their bogey team Germany in the second round. It was a vastly improved performance from England, who had been held 1-1 by the United States in their opening game then were below-par in Friday night's goalless draw with Algeria. "I'm sure we will play more with confidence. We have found the spirit, the quality of the play was really good and we improved a lot physically. We ran a lot," said Capello. "I spoke with the players when we saw the first half against Algeria. We understood it was not a good way to go forward and during training it was very good, focused and fast. "We found the physicality that we know usually. The players were the same that we see in the Premier League." Capello was in no doubt what went wrong in the first two games: the players were gripped by fear of failure. He found a typically English way of solving the problem: going for a pint. Several members of the first-team squad dissected Friday's draw with Algeria over a drink, while Capello also allowed the players to drink on Tuesday evening to help the players relax. "Yesterday [Tuesday] evening they drank beer before the game and I saw the team play with the spirit that we lost," he said. "The performance was really good and we created a lot of chances to score a second goal. This is the spirit that I remember when we played in the qualification games. I am really happy with the performance of the team. "We played hard, we attacked the ball and this is important if we want to win."